Lots of misconceptions about new common core standards

It's a case of the informed being more wrong than those in the dark. A new Farleigh Dickinson University PublicMind Poll shows people who have heard more about New Jwersey's new Common Core education standards are more likely to have misconceptions about them.

The poll shows 44 percent say they have heard nothing. And 32 percent say they have heard some or a lot about the standards. Parents of kids under 18 are more likely to have heard a lot. Of the people who say they have heard "some" or "a lot" about the curriculum standards, 54 percent disapprove of them, and only 28 percent approve.

"Much of the information that's been out there about Common Core has been very negative," said Dan Cassino, a professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson, and PublicMind survey analyst. "So it's not surprising that more information is related to more negative attitudes."

New Jersey is among 39 states that have adopted the Common Core curriculum, but only 29 percent of those polled know that New Jersey is using the new guidelines. First announced in 2009, Common Core describes what students are supposed to know at each grade level in English and mathematics in order to prepare them for college.

"The Common Core standards themselves seem fairly innocuous," Cassino said . "But in the absence of real information about them, people have attached all sorts of controversy to them. The actual information is pretty dull. There aren't too many parents saying I don't want my children learning trigonometry or Shakespeare."

However, 43 percent of people who reported they had heard about the standards incorrectly believed they include sex education. Others thought evolution or global warming were involved.

"It looks like the Common Core has become a proxy fight over curriculum," Cassino said.